Method of making mower guards



1938. sxc. POWELL 2,127,048

A METHOD OF MAKING MOWER GUARDS Filed Aug. 9, 1935 Patented Aug. 16, 1938 FEED STATES PATENT FFICE Stanley C. Powell,

Chicago, Ill.,

assignor to International Harvester Company, a corporation of New Jersey Application August 9, 1935, Serial No. 35,408

2 Claims.

The invention relates to the construction of a guard of the type used in mowers and other harvesters. The invention also embraces a novel method for producing or forming the guard.

Heretofore such guards, which include a body having a point and a lip, were cast in one piece, leaving the usual space between the lip and top of the guard body to form the knife passage. This passage is awkward to machine and finish. Further, the top surface of the body is difficult to finish in providing the ledger mount surface. Consequently, these guards are costly to produce.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a guard of standard form but constructed in a manner to facilitate its manufacture and lessen its cost. 7

Another object is to provide a forged guard which can be more accurately made/than a cast guard to eliminate expensive machining and finishing operations.

Still another object is to provide a three-piece guard in which the body, point, and lip are separately forged and then assembled in a holding fixture wherein all parts are united by a single welding operation to form a unitary one-piece guard.

Another important object is to provide a novel method of forming these guards.

Other important objects will become apparent to those skilled in this art as the disclosure is more fully made.

Briefly, these objects are attained in separately forging the guard in three pieces, to wit: the body, the point, and the lip. Each part as it is forged will be appropriately coined especially along the faces of the parts which are to abut each other in uniting the parts. Further the body will have its ledger surface appropriately formed in the forging operation. The point is then held in a fixture with its rear coined and flush face exposed. The lip is then placed with its front end on the front end of the body, both of these latter two parts having front ends coined and lying flush in a common plane to form a mating edge with the rear end face of the point. A fixture holds the lip and body in proper position so that by means of a single electric welding operation the lip and body are welded simultaneously to the point to unite the three parts and form the completed guard which requires no machining or expensive finishing. All that need be done after the welding operation is to grind oil the flash left by the weld, where the parts abut and are joined.

In the sheet of drawings forming part of this disclosure, there-has been illustrated a practica-, ble embodiment of the invention, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the guard with each of the three parts thereof shown detached, but in the general relative positions they assume in a finished guard;

. Figure 2is a side elevational view of the guard with the three parts joined, the welding fixtures being generally indicated;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the finished guard;

Figure 4 is a vertical elevational view of the rear end of the point viewed from the line AA of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 5 is a vertical elevational view of the front end of the body viewed from the line BC of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows; and,

Figure 6 is a vertical elevational view of the front end of the lip'viewed from the line DB of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

The guard is formed in three separate forged pieces. The first part is the body It! having a heel portion II for attachment to a cutter bar; and a flat top ledger surface l2. The body also includes the spacer wings l3 extending oppositely in the usual way. The front end of the body, as shown in Figure 5, is hollowed out at II to save metal and to provide a reduced, vertical, flat face or surface 15.

The second part, also formed as a forging preferably, is the lip l6 which has itsfront end I! formed with. a portion providing a flat surface disposed in the direction of the smallest dimension of the lip and adapted to lie in a common plane with thesurface of the body piece. This piece l6 may include a notchedportion 18 for locatinga standard ledger plate on the body In and the surface I 2, if one is to be used. It will be noted that the smallest dimension, in the present instance, refers to the shortest distance across the part whereat it is practicable to provide a face for welding, as will be later described.

The third part comprises the point I9 formed hollow or recessed at 20 to save metal and weight which provides a. portion terminating in a. face or surface 2| disposed in the direction of the smallest dimension of the point and substantially surrounding the recessed or hollow portion 20 which also may be disposed in the same plane with the faces l5, l7 heretofore mentioned, or in substantially the same or an abutting parallel plane.

It is now apparent that each of the three parts of a standard guard are first separately formed by forging which my include the usual coining operation to result in precision which will eliminate all machining and finishing operations. The ledger surface i2 on the body piece I. is completed in the forging of the body part. Similarly, the lip I6 is completed in its forging and requires no subsequent finishing. The same is true of the point. In the coining step, care is taken, of course, in forming the faces i5, i1 and II so that they may lie in a common plane for a purpose presently to appear.

In the process of assembling the three separate parts, a holding fixture, indicated generally at 22, is provided to receive the tip or point l9, as shown in Figure 2, where it will be seen the rear face It thereof remains exposed and lies in a vertical plane. Next, the lip IS with its front end is set on top of the front face of the body ill with the forward face ll of the lip lying flush in the same plane with the forward face l5 of the body. Then, in such position the lip and body parts are held in a suitable fixture indicated generally at 23 in Figure 3. It will be noted that the total areas of the faces l5 and I! are substantially equal to the area of the face 2| of the point. The part I! in fixture 22 and the parts l0, IS in the fixture 23 are then moved in a relative manner to bring the flush faces 11, I5 into abutting relation with the face 2|, as shown in Figure 2. By electric welding, these abutting faces are now joined so that the face l'l unites molecularly with the upper part of the face 2|, thereby joining the lip to the point; and the face Hi to the lower part of the face 2| thereby joining the body to the point. While it is not necessary to weld the lower horizontal edge of the front end of the lip to the front top horizontal edge of the body, it, nevertheless, is found in practice that the flash creeps back some distance also to weld these horizontal surfaces together.

Thus, the three parts are united by welding and a unitary guard structure results. The provision of the faces of the parts across the smallest dimensions of the parts results in the shortest possible practicable junction between the parts, which provides for a comparatively quick welding operation. In completing the guard all that is necessary to be done is to grind ofi the flash edge left by the welding along the butt line where the parts are Joined.

From this disclosure, it can now be seen that an improved guard is provided as an article of manufacture and that the same is formed by a novel method all in a manner in accordance with the objects of the invention heretofore recited.

It is the intention to cover all changes and modifications of the preferred example illustrated and described, which do not in material respects constitute departures from the invention as hereinafter claimed.

What is claimed is:

l. The method of forming a mower guard which comprises the steps of separately forming a point with a recessed portion at one end and a surface transversely of the point and substantially surrounding said recess, a lip with a surface formed transversely thereof, and a body with a recessed portion at one end and a surface transversely of the body and substantially surrounding said recess, bringing the parts together with their said faces abutting and simultaneously welding the surfaces on the lip and body to the surface on the point to unite the three parts, said surfaces on the point and body forming reduced areas to be welded.

2. The method of forming a mower guard which comprises the steps of separately forging a point with a face at one end, forging a lip with a face at one end, forging a body with a face at one end, said faces disposed in a plane in the direction of substantially the smallest dimension of each part, supporting the point in a fixture with its face exposed, placing the lip on the body and supporting said two parts in a. fixture with their faces lying in a common plane coincident with the aforesaid plane, locating the faces of the lip and body in abutting relation to the face on the point and simultaneously welding the lip and body faces to the face on the point.

STANLEY C. POWELL. 

